Richmond has been named the best place to live in London, however residents fear it is becoming a 'playground for the wealthy' with young families priced out of the borough.

High house prices mean that long-term locals cannot afford to buy, while young families are living in 'broom cupboards' and independent shops struggle to break even.

Richmond was the only area in London to feature in Rightmove's new top 20 list of UK towns and cities – and it placed 11th in the country.

The average price of a home in Richmond was £1.03 million in the past year, according to online home site - a 16 per cent increase on the 2019 peak of £893,864.

Guy Chance, aged 69, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he moved to Acton to 'get a better place' after living in Richmond for 10 years.

He said Richmond is 'great fun for youngsters, all the things they can do on the social side, it's a buzzy place to live' but that 'young families either live in a broom cupboard or move out'.

Tony Khatchik has run children's shop The Toy Station in Richmond for 27 years . He said the area is 'quietening down' for businesses as families spend more time at home working and shopping online, going out to eat and drink instead - with the number of restaurants quadrupling in the last three decades.

He said families don't have much cash to spend because mortgages and prices are so high.

Mr Khatchik said: "they have big mortgages because prices are very high and everything else is expensive so they don't have as much disposable income."

He said central Richmond was always 'a playground of the wealthy and the millionaires', but this has spread to the outskirts with homes that were once affordable, now tripling in price.

He added: "About 20 years ago, you could go to Ham and buy yourself an apartment or a house on a modest income but now all that is the playground of the wealthy.

"There's a lot of foreign investment here, people come and buy a few properties now and rent them out... as well as companies who hire houses for their executives who come from abroad, they charge a lot because companies pay tax and all that stuff."

Mr Khatchik said homes never stay empty that long here and estate agents 'don't even have to put the sign up'. He pointed to the experience of his own daughter who is renting in Twickenham, but can't afford to buy a house in the borough to start a family.

He said: "People keep going out … and different kinds of people come in.

"Not many people can say: 'I've lived in the area for three generations.' They're all gone."

Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West, who run bookshop The Alligator's Mouth, said businesses are struggling to break even. Ms Wallace-Jones said there's a 'good level of community engagement', but there is a real fight to save the high street against the background of exorbitant business rates and rents.

"We're in a very odd transition where the chains are disappearing and what I'd like to think is what will replace the chains is businesses like ours - that's going to require some help from various quarters," she said.